The Solopreneur Life “Friday Bits” Column #39

It’s the end of the week, and just like almost every Friday at The Solopreneur Life, I have some tasty, mostly-healthy bits of information to share with you.

This week’s menu includes:
• Best of the “new-Facebook” articles
• How to kick Groupon to the curb
• Oh the frugality!
• Another marketing lesson from Keith Richards
• There’s a shortage of search marketers
• Self-sabotage and the solopreneur
• Help for your landing/sales pages

Best of the “New-Facebook” Articles

With Facebook’s new business features revealed last week, there was a deluge of information available online this week on how to use Facebook for your small biz. Here are some of the best items I found:

• A really nice explanation by John Jantsch of the new Facebook “image ribbon,” how it works, and how you can make best use of it.

• Wildfire has a concise overview of the changes. If you want to dig deeper, a lot deeper, Wildfire has a slew of incredibly useful new-Facebook articles.

And you definitely will want to set up a branded URL (called a vanity URL; mine is Facebook.com/TheSolopreneurLife). To do it, you first need to establish a fan base of at least 25 fans. Then visit http://www.facebook.com/username/ to choose your vanity URL.

Oh the Frugality!

Another Marketing Lessons From Keith Richards

In a mini-follow-up to my article on marketing lessons to be learned from reading Keith Richards’s new autobiography, last night I found another lesson: test.

The Rolling Stones recorded “Exile on Main Street” in the summer of 1971 on the waterfront of Villefranche-sur-Mer in the Côte d’Azur region of southern France. The recording was done at a mansion, Nellcôte, that Keith Richards leased and lived in. Keith writes:Mick and Keith at Nellcôte in the summer of 1971

We would record from late in the afternoon until five or six in the morning, and suddenly the dawn comes up and I’ve got this boat…Most days we would go down to Menton, an Italian town…Take a cassette player and play something we’ve done…We’d play the mix to the Italians, see what they thought.

This is the first time in the book that Keith has mentioned the market-testing of songs. Testing was possible in this case because they had time: recording stretched on for the entire summer. The end result? The first (and perhaps only) record that the Stones tested with listeners became their most popular and arguably their best.

There’s a Shortage of Search Marketers

I’ve been trying for the past week to hire a traffic pro to help me drive traffic to The Solopreneur Life Ads. In the process, I’ve discovered that the really good ones are swamped and there’s a huge shortage of “legit” traffic people. Isn’t that amazing, with all the people who claim to know how to do it? If you want to know what it takes to become an independent search marketer, check out this article from the SEOMOZ blog.